1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing device, an image processing method, and a program, relating to color matching processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the use of networks in offices and so forth has increased, devices which provide network connection functionality to image forming devices such as digital photocopiers and printers have become widely used. By using such an image forming device, printing or scanning can be performed via a network.
Also, the demand has increased for color image input devices, such as digital cameras, and camera functionality is provided to mobile terminals such as portable telephones. Accordingly, demand has increased for sending photographed images directly from a color image input device to a color image output device such as a printer, for printing the photograph.
Such a direct printing system which prints an image directly from a portable color image input device will be discussed. With such a system, color matching is performed on the printer side, using an ICC (International Color Consortium) profile, in order to realize color matching between the color image input device and the printer.
A technology is proposed for performing color matching by driving a mapping model on an operating system (OS), with a file format describing measurement values of an input/output device called DMP (Device Model Profile) which uses XML (extensible Markup Language) descriptions.
The measurement values of an input device are the data showing the color value (Lab value and so forth) in which the input device has photographed a color patch, and the correlation (input color characteristics) of the color reading value of the color patch (the Lab value and so forth which the color measurement values device outputs).
The measurement values of an output device are the data showing the color value (Lab value and so forth) in which the output device has printed a color patch, and the correlation (output color characteristics) of the color measurement values of the color patch (the Lab value and so forth which the color measurement values device outputs).
FIG. 10 illustrates color matching processing using DMP, and the above-described color matching processing is realized by a module called ColorTranslationEngine (hereinafter this will be called “CTE”).
In FIG. 10, the DMP (Device Model Profile) 4061 is data which is described in XML format, and includes color information individual to the input/output device, and color matching processing is performed with a method which is regulated by the device model 4062.
The device model 4062 performs conversion processing using a method determined by a matching method 4063 which is separated into a baseline, which is a processing common to each input and output device, and a plug-in, which is individually set by a vendor. For example, it can be determined that a CRT (cathode ray tube) such as a monitor performs 3 by 4 matrix operations, gamma correction processing, offset processing, and gain processing, and that an RGB (red-green-blue) printer performs three-dimensional LUT (lookup table) conversion.
A color gamut model (GamutMap Models) 4064 is executed by a mapping algorithm 4065 for each intent, which is separated into a baseline, which is a common process for running a mapping model which performs color conversion, and a plug-in, which is individually set by a vendor. For example, in the case of Colorimetric, brightness clip processing is performed, and so forth.
Now, a method which dynamically performs color matching based on a profile describing the measurement values of an input/output device requires far higher processor processing capabilities, compared with color matching which uses a conversion table described in an ICC profile. Accordingly, with direct printing, color matching using DMP is difficult for a printer to perform.